What’s going on with Israel? World governments are busily condemning Israel over the flotilla incident in which Israeli soldiers, boarding a ship attempting to breach the completely legal blockade of Gaza, were attacked, beaten, and in danger of their lives.

The lead ship of the flotilla, a Turkish ship — the Mavi Marmara — manned by “peace activists” who advertised themselves as “adhering to nonviolence and nonviolent resistance on word and deed at all times.” The “peace activists” were waiting with knives, metal clubs, slingshots with steel balls and fire bombs. All the usual people were shocked! shocked! A deliberate provocation, staged with all sorts of planning by the phony peace activist pals of Hamas, turned into the hysterical headlines the organizers were looking for.

Turkey thought that the Gaza flotilla would be yet another clever way of confronting Israel: They would hype the hoped-for “overreaction,” then posture as regional defender of the faith to the world’s outraged Muslims. However, as more details of the incident emerge, more and more suspicion is falling on Turkish interests that seem to have gone out of their way to stage a violent encounter in order to showcase Turkey’s new Mideast role.

The world’s peoples may pay soon for their leaders’ display of such a disproportionate double standard. Recall that the other, recent instance when the world’s governments deployed their collective authority and wrath was last June, against Lilliputian Honduras. The conclusion is inescapable: The smaller the problem, the larger the world powers’ output of hot air. But if a problem is large or difficult—especially if the problem is nuclear—they blink and deflate, and will do so repeatedly. Example: It emerged this week that the International Atomic Energy Agency believes Iran is pursuing higher-enriched uranium and “the development of a nuclear payload for a missile.” The world yawns. Or hides.

Now Iran is threatening to send their Revolutionary Guard navy to safeguard another flotilla attempting to break the blockade. The completely legal blockade conducted by Israel and Egypt. Egypt too is threatened by Hamas. The United States appears weak and indecisive, and enemies are always ready to take advantage of weakness. Obama sort of said he would stand with Israel, while offering undeserved condolences to Turkey and insisting on an investigation. This is what other nations understand as weakness. And belligerents often overestimate weakness.

The present government of Turkey, led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is attempting a new Mideast role, reestablishing its long ago role as leader of the Ottoman empire. The world’s powers feel free to pile on relatively small isolated nations. They “find it easier to be blowhards than statesmen,” said Dan Henninger. “And that means we have a problem.”